“Siegmund: (#24) I longed to leave the wildwood and felt drawn to men and women: (#64 Clarinet) However many I met, wherever I might find them, though I sued for a friend or for women, - ever was I treated as an outcast. Ill fortune lay upon me. Whatever I held to be right others thought was wrong.; to whatever seemed to me bad, others gave their approval. (Animatedly) I was caught up in feuds wherever I went and met by anger wherever I fared; (Hesitatingly) though I craved for bliss, I caused only woe. – And so I must call myself Woeful [“Wehwalt”], for woe is all I have known.
(He looks up at Sieglinde and notices her sympathetic glance: #67; #40 or #64?; #5)
Hunding: The Norn who decreed so wretched a fate (#68) felt little love for you: the man you draw near as stranger and guest will not be glad to greet you. (#67)
Sieglinde: Only cowards fear a man who, weaponless, fares alone! – (#63) Tell us, guest, how at last you lost your weapon in the fray. (#66)
Siegmund: A sorrowing maid had called me to arms: her kinsmen’s clan was wanting to marry the maid, unloved, to a man. … I flew to her aid; the horde of oppressors I faced in battle: the enemy fell to the victor. Her brothers lay there slain: the maid enclasped their corpses; grief drove out her anger. (#5; [[ #69 ]] In floods of unstaunchable tears she bathed the dead with her weeping; the murder of her brothers the hapless maid bewailed. – The dead men’s kin came storming along, vast in number, they groaned in vengeance: all round the battlefield foemen rose to meet me. (#5) But the maid would not stir from the slain; with shield and spear I long gave her shelter till shield and spear were hewn from my hand in the fray. (#62) Wounded and weaponless, there I stood. (#62) I saw the maiden die: (#60) I was harried by the [Wotan’s] wild hunt – on the lifeless bodies she lay dead. (#66: Turning to Sieglinde with a look of sorrowful fervour: [[ #70 ]] now you know, you questioning woman, why Friedmund [free man, or happy man] is not my name!
([[ #71 ]] He stands up and walks over to the hearth: Sieglinde turns pale and stares, deeply shaken, at the ground.)
Hunding: (Rising to his feet.) I know an unruly race: what others hold dear they deem unholy: (more forcefully) they’re hated by all – and by me. (#67) I was called to vengeance, to seek requital for kinsmen’s blood: I came too late and now come home to find the fleeing traitor’s trace here inside my own house. (advancing downstage) My house, Woelfing [son of Wolf, Wotan in disguise], protects you today; for the night I have taken you in: (#67: more animatedly) But with sturdy weapons defend yourself in the morning; I choose the day for the fight; you’ll pay me tribute for all who died.”
